WEEKLY OCEAN NEWS

24-28 July 2006

DataStreme Ocean will return for Fall 2006 with new Investigations files starting during Preview Week, Monday, 28 August 2006. All the current online website products will continue to be available throughout the summer break period.

Ocean in the News:

• Tsunami death toll continues to rise -- An undersea earthquake with a magnitude ranging between 6.8 and 7.7 off the south coast of the Indonesian island of Java produced a tsunami with a height of up to 10 feet that struck the island at the beginning of last week. [NASA Earth Observatory] A high-resolution image obtained from the commercial satellite Ikonos shows some of the debris washed inland by the tsunami. [NASA Earth Observatory] A second earthquake on Wednesday did not produce a noticeable tsunami. As of late last week, the death toll associated with the tsunami had risen to 650 people. Although a tsunami warning had been issued by US and Japanese agencies, this warning did not reach local inhabitants. [BBC New s]
• Eye on the tropics --
  • Tropical Storm Beryl, the second tropical cyclone (hurricane or tropical storm) of the 2006 North Atlantic hurricane season formed off the coast of the Carolinas early last week and moved northward, finally brushing the coast of New England near Cape Cod by the end of the week, before it dissipated in the Gulf of Maine. Coastal residents experienced some high surf and some locally heavy rain associated with Tropical Storm Beryl. [CNN] An image of Tropical Storm Beryl was captured by instruments onboard NOAA's GOES-11 satellite as the storm moved across the Gulf of Maine toward Nova Scotia. [NOAA OSEI]
  • Hurricane Daniel developed well off the southwest Mexican coast early last week and moved westward across the eastern Pacific, intensifying to become a category 4 hurricane (on the Saffir-Simpson Scale) with estimated maximum sustained surface winds of up to 150 mph. As of Sunday, Hurricane Daniel remained a category 4 hurricane as it was approaching the Central Pacific Basin (longitude 140 degrees west). An image obtained from NOAA's GOES-11 satellite shows Hurricane Daniel as it moves westward across the eastern North Pacific late last week. [NOAA OSEI]
  • Tropical Storm Emilia, the fifth named tropical cyclone (tropical storm or hurricane) of the 2006 hurricane season in the eastern North Pacific, developed at the end of last week off the Central American coast. As of Sunday morning, this storm had turned from its initial northward track and was moving westward away from the coast of Mexico.
  • In the Western North Pacific, Typhoon Kaemi (a Western Pacific counterpart to a hurricane) developed last week and moved to the northwest, passing to the east and north of the Philippines as a Category 2 typhoon on the Saffir-Simpson Scale. The projected track of Kaemi is across Taiwan early this upcoming week.
  • Keeping tabs on sea-surface temperatures in "Hurricane Alley" -- A recent map of the sea-surface temperature anomalies (differences between observed and average temperatures) made from data collected by the Advanced Microwave Radiometer for EOS sensor on NASA’s Aqua satellite indicates that warmer than average water was found in "Hurricane Alley", the region of the Atlantic Ocean and Caribbean Sea between Africa and South America prone to hurricane development of intensification. Farther to the north, colder than average waters were detected across the subtropical Atlantic, near the position of the "Bermuda High", one of the centers of action in the planetary-scale atmospheric circulation regime. [NASA Earth Observatory]
• Lunar exploration training takes place on ocean floor -- Three astronauts and a NOAA ocean researcher have begun a mission to Aquarius, NOAA's undersea laboratory off the Florida coast, to test exploration concepts that could be used on a future mission to the moon. [NOAA News]
• View shipwrecks from the comfort of your computer workstation -- A new website was launched by NOAA and Immersion Presents, a program founded by explorer Robert Ballard, that is designed to be a marine science portal for the public, which offers live video and other material designed to educate people of all age groups about the ocean, especially that associated with marine sanctuaries. [NOAA News]
• Broadcasting from the USS Monitor -- The NOAA National Marine Sanctuary Program and the Institute for Exploration during the last week provided the public with a real-time broadcast through the Internet of researchers describing their mapping expedition to the Civil War vessel, the USS Monitor, that sank off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina in 1862. [NOAA News]
• Marine debris removal begins in the Aloha State -- Following a recent aerial survey made by helicopter, the NOAA Marine Debris program has begun removing an estimated 129 tons of marine debris along the coasts and coastal waters of the main Hawaiian Islands. [NOAA News]
• Some will continue to ignore evacuation orders -- A survey conducted by the Harvard School of Public Health Project on the Public and Biological Security in the high-risk and hurricane-prone sections of eight Gulf and Atlantic coast states indicates that approximately one-third of the respondents would consider ignoring official evacuation orders in advance of an approaching hurricane. The poll also indicates that the public is concerned about the shelters. In addition, many of the respondents have not made critical preparations needed in case of a major hurricane. [Harvard School of Public Health]
• Sea level rise and loss of wetlands are threats to Mississippi Delta -- Geoscientists from Tulane University and Utrecht University report that the erosion and other environmental problems experienced along the Louisiana Gulf Coast are not due as much to subsidence or sinking of the earth's crust, but to increases in sea level during the last 8000 years and losses of wetlands. The scientists also indicate that subsidence is mainly limited to recently formed delta sediments. [The Geological Society of America]
• Methane blowouts could impact the climate -- Scientists at the University of California, Santa Barbara recently that they have witnessed a massive blowout of methane from the ocean floor in the Santa Barbara Channel and they suggest that gas escaping from the ocean floor could explain some of the historical warming cycles that have occurred on a global scale. The methane appears to have originated in deposits of methane hydrate on the ocean floor. [EurekAlert!]
• How pollution threatens the health of coral -- Researchers at the University of Central Florida explain that the decline in the health of coral reefs could be the inability of coral to repair tissue damage when exposed to pollutants, meaning that lesions do not heal. [EurekAlert!]
• A tiny organism may have a big impact -- A scientist at the University of Miami and other colleagues reported on their genomic analysis of Ostreococcus tauri, a species of phytoplankton believed to have populated the world's oceans for the last 1.5 billion years and which plays a big role in the carbon cycle because of its ability to perform photosynthesis. [EurekAlert!]
• A halt in destructive fishing practice requested -- The UN Division for Ocean Affairs and Law of the Sea has produced a report that demonstrates a need for an international moratorium on destructive fishing practices such as bottom-trawling that can cause damage to deep sea life. [EurekAlert!]
• Global and US Hazards/Climate Extremes -- A review and analysis of the global impacts of various weather-related events, including drought, floods and storms during the current month. [NCDC]
• Earthweek -- Diary of the Planet [earthweek.com] Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Historical Events:

• 24 July 1609...A fleet of ships carrying colonists to the New World met with a hurricane near Bermuda, resulting in much loss of property but little loss of life. (Northern Indiana NWSFO)
• 24-25 July 1979...Claudette, a weak tropical storm, deluged southeastern Texas with torrential rains. The Houston suburb of Alvin received 43.00 inches, a 24-hour precipitation record for not only the Lone Star State, but for the U.S. Freeport reported a total of 30 inches. Total damage from flooding was over $400 million. On the 27^th, a van loaded with people on their way to a church camp stopped on Texas Highway 7 due to a flooded bridge just west of Centerville. A truck rammed the van, pushing it into the flooded creek, resulting in five people drowning. (Intellicast) (David Ludlum) (NCDC) (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 24-26 July 1996...Although thousands of miles from southern California, an intense South Pacific storm south of Tahiti produced seven to ten foot surf with some sets up to 12 feet along the southern California coast. Lifeguards participated in more than 500 rescues along the beaches. (Accord's Weather Guide Calendar)
• 25 July 1956...The Italian ship Andrea Doria sank in dense fog near Nantucket Lightship, MA. Ten hours earlier, the ship was rammed by the Swedish-American liner, Stockholm, forty-five miles off the coast of Massachusetts. Fifty-two persons drowned, or were killed by the impact. (David Ludlum) (The Weather Channel)
• 25 July 1994...Hurricane Gilma, like Emilia a week earlier, reached Category 5 strength in the Central Pacific. (Intellicast)
• 27 July 1866...The 1686-mile long Atlantic Cable was successfully completed between Newfoundland and Ireland by the American businessman Cyrus W. Field, allowing transatlantic telegraph communication for the first time. Two previous attempts at laying a cable ended in failure. (Wikipedia) (Today in Science History)
• 27 July 1926...A hurricane came inland near Daytona Beach, FL. The hurricane caused 2.5 million dollars damage in eastern Florida, including the Jacksonville area. (David Ludlum)
• 27 July 1943...On a whim, and flying a single engine AT-6, Lieutenant Ralph O' Hair and Colonel Duckworth were the first to fly into a hurricane. It started regular Air Force flights into hurricanes. (The Weather Channel)
• 28 July 1819...A small but intense hurricane passed over Bay Saint Louis, MS. The hurricane was considered the worst in fifty years. Few houses were left standing either at Bay Saint Louis or at Pass Christian and much of the Mississippi coast was desolate following the storm. An U.S. cutter was lost along with its thirty-nine crewmembers. The storm struck the same area that was hit 150 years later by Hurricane Camille. (David Ludlum)

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Prepared by AMS DS Ocean Central Staff and Edward J. Hopkins, Ph.D., email hopkins@meteor.wisc.edu
ã Copyright, 2006, The American Meteorological Society.